Graduation Tour 2022

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sgwilly
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Graduation Tour 2022

#1

Post by sgwilly »

My daughter Katie graduated from high school in June and I volunteered to take her on a tour across the country (absolute genius move on my part, if I don't say so myself). Eleven days to get from Raleigh NC to San Diego CA via the Black Hills, Devil’s Tower, Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Yosemite, Monterey, and the Pacific Coast Highway. While I would have rather have taken 21 days to go at a more leisurely pace - truth be told, I would have just roped in Alaska (it's a sickness).

Decided on pulling a trailer since we're looking to camp at least half the time out on the road. I've done camp packing for 2 before on this bike but it is exceedingly difficult. Given the miles I was planning, I needed it to be easy packing. Throw it in the box and go. Having a cooler is also a huge bonus.
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We stopped for a picnic lunch in WV where we hit a bit of fog and rain. It gave us a chance to try out the new rain gear purchased for the trip. I really like the Nelson-Rigg boot gaiters I picked up for the both of us. Even though we have waterproof boots, we only brought one pair and I didn't want to deal with soggy boots at any point. Those gaiters delivered. Bone dry in every downpour we encountered.
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Katie is not impressed with my selfie skills and is letting me know about it.
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As punishment, I gave her the extended Roebling Lecture. The man was a master of suspension bridges. This one bridging the Ohio river in Cincinnati was completed in 1867. He went on to design and build the Grandaddy of them all in Brooklyn. I’ll let you guess the name of that one.
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Day 1 got us 616 miles out of Dodge and just West of Cincinnati. The plan is to keep that pace for 3 days until we reach the Black Hills. We live in the East and have seen a bunch of it already. We're headed for Different.
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Steve
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Whiskerfish
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#2

Post by Whiskerfish »

Awesome!! Enjoy the time with her. They start their own lives too fast!!
"Agreement is not a requirement for Respect" CDR Michael Smith USN (Ret) 2017
"The book is wrong, this whole Conclusion is Fallacious" River Tam
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and a whole garage full of possibilities!!

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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#3

Post by 5speed »

have a great trip
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#4

Post by Fred Camper »

Wow, great plan and only one shot. Nice.
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#5

Post by Sagebrush »

Had a friend that took his daughter on a similar trip after she graduated. Something that they will always treasure together. Have fun, be safe. Slow down a little and smell the roses. Its not imperative that you ride 700 miles every day ;)
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Whiskerfish
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#6

Post by Whiskerfish »

Make sure to document all of it and back it up somewhere. My Cousin did the Cont Divide with his Son when he graduated and then he had books made of the adventure. He gave one to my Parents and I have read it any times. Great stuff.
"Agreement is not a requirement for Respect" CDR Michael Smith USN (Ret) 2017
"The book is wrong, this whole Conclusion is Fallacious" River Tam
2008 GL1800 IIIA "TH3DOG"
1975/6/7/8/9 Arthur Fulmer Dressed Road bike
1975 Naked Noisy and Nasty in town bike
and a whole garage full of possibilities!!

Psst. oh and by the way CHANGE YOUR BELTS!!!!
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sgwilly
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#7

Post by sgwilly »

I guess one thing to note is that we did this in June - spoiler alert - we survived. As far as documenting, I literally brought a note book along to write daily logs but true to form, it never happened. I did push out Facebook posts every day or two with a few notes. Both as a public service announcement to my family as well as a crude record. I'm figuring this thread will serve as the next iteration where I can expand a bit and I figured y'all would enjoy it. Will it ever be a book? Odds are low but I have been thinking of a hard copy form. Maybe a road atlas with our route highlighted and pasted in pics and text. Anyhow, thanks for the comments. Onto the show...

One of my riding habits is to run the gas all the way into reserve - every time. Maybe it's my little way of living on the edge in the middle of everyday suburbia. My old 1100 used to hit reserve at around 156, which gave me a respectable 180 or so on the full tank. Living in the Eastern US means there's a gas station within 20 miles in any direction just about anywhere (which also contributed to my learned risk behavior). Moving over the Valkyrie dropped my range to about 135 before reserve - which I would routinely ride about 20 miles before a fill up. And yes, this is going to end up biting me.

Day 2 was another big mile day heading due west. We ran into scattered rain throughout the morning as we got off the Interstate for a few hours. Since most roads run east-west and north-south out in this area, spending an extra hour for the day on smaller state highways is much more enjoyable. You get to see so much more of the natural lay of the land not to mention the occasional town.
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To break up the day (and avoid any mutinous talk) we stopped at the Lincoln home in Springfield Illinois. Katie wasn't terribly impressed but I found it amazing that they arrested a block or two of downtown Springfield in permanent 1860. Step one foot outside of that perimeter and you're back in reality.

I did manage to get Katie to pose by the display of a casting of Lincoln's face and hands.
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Katie then suggested that this was my chance, "Kiss Abe on the lips!" - I passed. You never know where those lips have been.
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Steve
'09 Yamaha FJR1300AE
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#8

Post by sgwilly »

After we got back on the road the sun came out and everything was looking swell. Except I was back in reserve again and getting antsy as I was seeing less and less stations. I started getting panicky when I was was 20 miles into the reserve and I still hadn't come up on an exit with an obvious gas station. After getting off the interstate following the lure of a purported gas station that was actually 5 miles away in town, Calamity #1 hit.

Katie seems to enjoy the fact that I ran out of gas 3 miles from the nearest pump.
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After struggling with a call to AAA, random dude (Jason) drove by and asked if I needed anything. I told him I just ran out of gas and he went down to his farm and came back with a can a gas in about 5 minutes! Said he was a fellow rider who wasn’t about to drive by a bike stopped on a road shoulder. Awesome! This was WAY better than the time I waited outside a rest stop bathroom to ask random truckers for a gallon of diesel.
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To make up time and stay on schedule we road into the evening ending our day on the Missouri River at St. Joseph.
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Another 560 miles in the books.
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Steve
'09 Yamaha FJR1300AE
'99 Valkyrie Tourer
'89 Isuzu Trooper 3.4L
'83 GL1100 MonkeyWing (on IR)
'75 GL1000 (in the queue)
'70 Suzuki T500 Titan (in the queue)
'64 MGB
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#9

Post by Whiskerfish »

lolol lolol lolol lolol lolol

Someday she will be telling her Grandkids about you running out of gas on a wild adventure. Then they will ask her "what is Gas?"
"Agreement is not a requirement for Respect" CDR Michael Smith USN (Ret) 2017
"The book is wrong, this whole Conclusion is Fallacious" River Tam
2008 GL1800 IIIA "TH3DOG"
1975/6/7/8/9 Arthur Fulmer Dressed Road bike
1975 Naked Noisy and Nasty in town bike
and a whole garage full of possibilities!!

Psst. oh and by the way CHANGE YOUR BELTS!!!!
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#10

Post by Paola Zago »

Whiskerfish wrote: Tue Jul 12, 2022 6:48 am lolol lolol lolol lolol lolol

Someday she will be telling her Grandkids about you running out of gas on a wild adventure. Then they will ask her "what is Gas?"
real! it will definitely happen !!
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sgwilly
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#11

Post by sgwilly »

Day 3 was devoted just about entirely to Nebraska. I decided to take the more remote route diagonally through the state on route 2. A somewhat dicey proposition as I was still working on my fuel management game. I was only slowly becoming aware of the need to look for gas before I got into reserve. On top of that was the fact that my mpg had plummeted with being fully loaded and pulling a rather full trailer. But in the end, I was getting bored of the slab and decided to roll the dice. I will say that remote has a new definition for me now.

This unmanned, single gas pump, appropriately named “Oasis” saved my bacon.
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Katie was also not too happy in my food selection for lunch. But as I told her, “Food is fuel. Eat up, Chuck!”



Seriously ominous clouds gathered with a dark impenetrable grey blue off to the North where the Interstate lay. Turns out my remote route was just south of a violent storm that brought out a fleet of storm chasers. Lucked out on that.
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We saw at least a dozen 100+ coal car trains headed east throughout the day. There is a mighty big hole somewhere. Actually two if you count the ozone.



Toward the end of our run on Route 2, we ran through three towns in a row that didn’t have a single working gas pump. Uh oh. :roll:

When I got to reserve I slowed down to 50 mph to conserve because I figured I was going to run out 20 miles before we got to a pump. I’m guessing at that because we had no cell phone coverage to even look for gas up the road and I could only assume there was a pump at the next road intersection. This is what they call, “being way out on the limb” and certainly added to the days entertainment. But that slow down did the trick and we burbled into the station cheering.

My tank officially holds 5.3 gallons, which according to my calculations left about 3 miles left in the tank. Another bullet dodged.
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Another 677 miles in the books - and more importantly - we made it to the Black Hills at dusk.
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IMG_7556.PNG (253.47 KiB) Viewed 1815 times
Steve
'09 Yamaha FJR1300AE
'99 Valkyrie Tourer
'89 Isuzu Trooper 3.4L
'83 GL1100 MonkeyWing (on IR)
'75 GL1000 (in the queue)
'70 Suzuki T500 Titan (in the queue)
'64 MGB
IBA #58082
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#12

Post by Brant »

Thats a beautiful ride through Nebraska, through the Sandhills. Wonderful plan you got there,
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sgwilly
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#13

Post by sgwilly »

I really liked that ride in Nebraska. It was fascinating to watch the land slowly change from one biome to the next. The Sandhills were mesmerizing with their expanse.
Steve
'09 Yamaha FJR1300AE
'99 Valkyrie Tourer
'89 Isuzu Trooper 3.4L
'83 GL1100 MonkeyWing (on IR)
'75 GL1000 (in the queue)
'70 Suzuki T500 Titan (in the queue)
'64 MGB
IBA #58082
All my stuff is old. It makes me feel young.
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Re: Graduation Tour 2022

#14

Post by Sagebrush »

Of all of Honda's flat six bikes the Valk definitely gets the worst gas mileage and shortest range. Did you take the time to attend the Hologram theater at the Lincoln museum when you were there? If not, too bad its really cool.
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